Meet Andrea Morton, Sr. Director, Confy Category Planning

Tuesday, September 10, 2024

What was the most rewarding experience you had during the Management Development Associate Program?

My most rewarding was my very first experience as a Customer Category Manager leading Kraft’s Cheese Business. The experience not only opened my eyes to everything I love about consultative selling but was empowered with an incredible trust from the CVP that believed in me to upskill into the role. I was so motivated by the responsibility of leading such an important business at that point in my career, one of the largest desks on that team at the time. It allowed me to build my capability set learning so many aspects of the role: building a plan focusing on their shopper’s greatest needs and customer strategy, consulting the merchant on assortment and promotional effectiveness, partnering with shelf management to recommend planograms, pitching innovation, and designing trial-driving launch plans. I loved analyzing insights and building the annual plan. In the MDA program it’s common to feel that you are the “sponge,” soaking up feedback; the organization’s launch of new promotional effectiveness analytical tools was an opportunity for me to step forward as an early adopter and was able to “pay back” my teammates for their generous help training me by helping them learn the new tools and brainstorm learning application together. I am a huge proponent of leaning in to LDAs today taking full ownership of their role- as it allowed me to build credibility amongst my peers as an equal member of the team, and the accomplishments selling in distribution, solving overspends through a strengthened annual plan gave me confidence to own larger customer relationships going forward.

How did the Management Development Associate Program's mentorship and coaching opportunities contribute to your growth?

At the time, the way that the mentorship experience was set up locally was that I had a mentor as a senior-level stakeholder as well as a mentor a couple of levels beyond my career. This multi-layered approach is one that set the tone in several ways: My senior-level mentor acted as a hybrid mentor-sponsor, helping me to mentally connect the everyday opportunities I saw to more strategic industry themes while simultaneously helping me to envision stretch career goals. Concurrently, my level mentor was there for me for the day-to-day questions, helping me understand the company culture and more intricate details about the way my role could best contribute to the team. I “grew up” in an incredible development-focused culture that inspired me to quickly find ways to mentor and give back, as I could see it being a driver of retention for other talent we were bringing in. This has fueled my passion for igniting career vision in others and is a key reason for my involvement in Women @ Mondelez ERG, as having a thriving, talented, and dedicated team is one of the best competitive advantages to fuel our future.

Which has been your most challenging role here at MDLZ?

This is a tough choice as I’ve benefited from a lot of tough experiences and will caveat that this role was one of the most instrumental roles of my career. I stepped into the Club Customer Vice President role after the retirement of a long-standing and beloved MDLZ leader, and at a time in which the channel was growing rapidly. This role required me to cast a vision in a different way than I ever had before, which required pulling together the right data into a powerful growth story, and repeating this story in front of the right audiences with a frequency and timing that helped the organization see that winning in Club was an essential part of our volume and market share growth plan in the future. Reflecting back on it now, it required me to be first in believing the vision and be comfortable standing alone, to then help my immediate team believe and then more functional partners to believe in this vision and deliver initiatives one by one.

What’s the best advice a manager has given you here in MDLZ?

I’d highlight two:

1. Take roles outside your comfort zone, including a National Customer: There is no substitute for being the owner of the largest plan and one that the company is dependent on and calling on the retailers that are innovating most and driving the future of the industry. My experience with a large supermarket chain in the USA was a pivotal enabler to the future of my career and was the perfect next step after my experiences in the Grocery and Value Channels and Category Planning. Bentonville is also a fantastic place to live, I’d recommend it to anyone even if just for a few years.
2. Get to the heart of the problem - and make your problem into a decision statement. We must recognize that we’re in a dynamic and highly emotional motivated environment- and we’ll make the best decisions most effectively if we can clearly define the problem, options to solve, and the implications/benefits.

What's been the highlight of your 15-year career journey at MDLZ?

Two highlights stand out to me. A personal highlight was leading the CLIF Integration for our Commercial function and carrying forward post-divestiture for Gum- it allowed me to support our broader organization leveraging ALL my previous experience in customer teams, retail, category planning- while building my acumen on how we operationally execute M&A across functions. It was also an incredible opportunity to be an ambassador for MDLZ to the CLIF organization, to be at the forefront of helping our new colleagues see the collective future. My favorite highlight was my role as a Region Director of Retail for both North and South Florida markets. It was an honor to be selected to work with a team so known for their standard of excellence and talent development. There is no comparison to having a large team united and passionate to drive growth, that is challenging each other to beat their own performance, to paving an organizational succession plan that enables future career plans for teammates at all levels and from all backgrounds. An example of a great team with the humility and tenacity to raise our bar individually and together and am proud to be #teamFlorida.

Can you discuss the role of continuous learning in your career growth?

Learning = breathing. On many lists, curiosity is one of the most important characteristics that are desired in future leaders. I have structured my continuous learning as integrated into how I live my life more so than thinking about learning from the framework of a degree or certification, though there is certainly a place for both mindsets! I love the briefs from Cleveland Research and Kantar to stay up to date on industry forecasts and retailer results. It’s important that we engage each other on the material we’re reading- a group of us often send each other good articles and will shout out the Digital Commerce team for driving awareness of great podcasts. I’m a student of consumer behavior and reflect on the “why” behind the numbers that we see. Outside of the everyday, I challenge myself for continuous learning in my career path- each role tends to be a pretty strong pivot- going from grocery CBT to category planning to Value & Mass- then to an RDR role- then Club- Growth Channels Strategy- CLIF Integration and Category Planning in a different category. I want those reading this to realize that leaders in this organization want you to be successful and they believe in you. Take a stretch assignment and BE OPEN with your managers and peers about where you’re confident and where you need help. Each one of us has a unique skill set, unique strengths and we need ALL of it to be the industry-leading organization we want to be. I know you’re in it with me 😊.

What is your favorite MDLZ product?

I love food- hard to choose just one! Clif Builders Mint Chocolate, belVita bites, Hu Dark Chocolate, Triscuit Thin Crisp Original, Sour Patch Strawberry.